HCMC firms wary of sending workers home amid Covid risk

Mold maker Lap Phuc in District 7 said though workers who are fully vaccinated are allowed to commute to work from home since Oct.1, they run the risk of infection and spreading it to their colleagues if they do this.

Workers work and sleep at Lap Phuc Company’s factory in HCMC’s District 7. Photo by VnExpress/An Phuong

Therefore it is encouraging them to continue living on-site, it said.

Some 130 engineers and technical workers have lived in the 10,000-square-meter plant since July 9, the company’s CEO, Nguyen Van Tri, said."If our employees agree, we will adopt the stay-at-work model until the Lunar New Year festival". The New Year is on February 1, 2022.

Engineering and construction company Dai Dung too said it would continue to have over 1,200 employees live at its headquarters in Tan Binh District and two plants in Binh Chanh District.

Some workers want to stay at the plant because they and their family members have not been fully vaccinated or live in areas with Covid-19 outbreaks, the company’s deputy general director, Trinh Manh Hung, said.

Over nearly three months of stay-at-work, no worker has been infected so far and the firm has managed to sustain production and timely delivery to partners, he said.

But it has added VND10 billion (US$434,800) to costs, and so the company would start sending employees home, starting with fully vaccinated workers, he added.

An employee works at Dai Dung Company in HCMC. Photo by VnExpress/An Phuong

Around 70 enterprises in the Saigon Hi-tech Park in Thu Duc are still adopting the stay-at-work model, and would continue to do so at least until the end of October, head of the park management, Nguyen Anh Thi, said.

Similarly, most of 720 enterprises with a total of more than 60,000 employees in 17 export processing zones and industrial parks in HCMC are still implementing the model. Few companies have let their workers go home.

The country reported 4,356 new Covid cases on Wednesday, almost the same as on Tuesday, with HCMC leading with 1,960 and followed by Binh Duong Province (852) and Dong Nai (534).